Introduction: The Instability of Scientific Truth

I. Not the Mechanism. 1. Two Visions of the Earth. 2. The Collapse of Thermal Contraction. 3. To Reconcile Historical Geology with Isostasy: Continental Drift.

4. Drift Mechanisms in the 1920s

II. Theory and Method. 5. From Fact to Theory. 6. The Short Step Backward. 7. Uniformitarianism and Unity

III. A Revolution in Acceptance. 8. Direct and Indirect Evidence.

9. An Evidentiary and Epistemic Shift. 10. The Depersonalization of Geology

Epilogue: Utility and Truth.